{"product_id":"9780374602826","title":"Dead in Long Beach, California","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"This book rewired my brain; it's a bonafide knockout.\" —Kristen Arnett, author of \u003ci\u003eWith Teeth \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"You can try bracing yourself for the ride this story takes you on, but it's best to just surrender. Your wig is going to fall off no matter what you do.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Saeed Jones, author of \u003ci\u003eHow We Fight for Our Lives\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA gut-busting and heartbreaking descent into one woman's fraying connection to reality, from a soon-to-be superstar.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCoral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, \u003ci\u003eWildfire\u003c\/i\u003e, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles —and triples—down on posing as her brother, risking not only her own sanity but her relationship with her precocious niece, Khadijah. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of \u003ci\u003eWildfire \u003c\/i\u003ebecomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas, and secrets dangerously into the present.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA form-shifting and soul-crunching chronicle of grief and crisis, Venita Blackburn’s debut novel, \u003ci\u003eDead in Long Beach, California\u003c\/i\u003e, is a fleet-footed marvel of self-discovery and storytelling that explores the depths of humankind’s capacity for harm and healing. With the daring, often hilarious imagination that made her an acclaimed short-fiction innovator, Blackburn crafts a layered, page-turning reckoning with what it means to be alive, dead, and somewhere in between.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Venita Blackburn","offers":[{"title":"Farrar Straus \u0026amp; Giroux |  Hardback | With dust jacket |  2024-01-23","offer_id":44652676776191,"sku":"9780374602826","price":36.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_50849bd9-9c8d-4aaf-84c7-49694a4d1caa.jpg?v=1704310261","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780374602826","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}